摘要：Summary (Air pollution and cardiac and respiratory function in a panel of patients). - The association
between exposure to urban air pollution and cardiac or respiratory impairments in susceptible subjects was
evaluated in a panel study including 11 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 7 with
ischemic heart disease (IHD), and 11 asthmatics resident in Rome (Italy). Patients underwent repeated 24 h
Holter EKG monitoring, 12 h pulse oximetry at night and spirometry examinations during 1999 summer and
winter. Multiple linear regression models for repeated individual measures (fixed-effect) were used to
analyse the relationship between average daily concentrations of pollutants (PM10-2.5, PM2.5 NO2 e O3) and
outcome variables, controlling for meteorological conditions, survey period, and week-ends. In the BPCO
panel, increasing ambient PM2.5 levels were associated with increased heart rate and decreased respiratory
function. In the asthmatic panel, inverse associations between pulmonary function and both NO2 and
PM10-2.5 concentrations were observed, as well as direct association between ambient NO2 concentrations
and NO in exhaled breath. In the IHD panel an increase of hearth rate variability associated with increasing
concentration of PM2.5 was observed.
